Price Controls...

On a typical day in Michigan I would drive by any number of gas stations, check the prices to see how they've changed overnight (or even during the workday) and what the difference is from the gas station across the street, and decide if I need gas that day or if I can wait for a potential price drop. Here it doesn't exactly work like that. First of all, as Volunteers we're not allowed to drive. But we do obviously need to travel. I've been on my share of roads in Azerbaijan and stopped at gas stations for the marshrutka to fill up, and at first I didn't notice the phenomenon. Then I began to pay more attention and began questioning it - do the gas prices not change here? Really? Really. The picture here is indicative of the past 17 months that I've lived in Azerbaijan - the prices have been exactly the same throughout the whole time. In the States we're lucky if they're the same for an entire day!

The other interesting aspect of this is that I always thought that living in an oil-rich country would produce some benefits - namely, gas would be a better deal here than in places that require long distance shipping. But using the A-93 gas as an example:

     0.55 AZN/liter = $0.685 USD/liter

     1 gallon = 3.78542 liters

     so, 1 gallon = $2.59 USD

Price of gas in Michigan last week: $2.59/gallon.